Contribution to Book
Hidden in plain sight.pdf
Talking about Structural Inequalities in Everyday Life: New Politics of Race in Groups, Organizations, and Social Systems.
(2016)
Abstract
Black women are the target of so much violence that their victimization has become normalized, such that it is no longer visible or as I prefer to call it: (in)visible. The purpose of this chapter is to explain this paradox. First, I will review the research on intimate partner violence (IPV) in the lives of Black women. By contexualizing Black women's use of violence, I will make the gendered nature of IPV more evident. There is rich demographic diversity among Black women. In order to make these subpopulations more visible, I will use intersectional analyses that considers the victims' social location in terms of age, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. The focus on individual acts of visible physical aggression renders other forms of violence invisible. Accordingly, in the third section, I will highlight the similarities and parallels between various forms of coercive control that are perpetrated by intimate partners and by agents of the state and service providers. Next, I will explore how structural risk factors, including poverty and concentrated neighborhood disadvantage, contribute to higher rates of IPV in the lives of Black women. To conclude, I will discuss how the criminal justice system and the economic system can better serve this marginalized population.
Keywords
- Intimate partner violence,
- domestic violence,
- African American women
Disciplines
Publication Date
2016
Editor
L. Wilton & E. Short
Publisher
Information Age Publishing
Citation Information
Carolyn M West. "Hidden in plain sight.pdf" Charlotte, NCTalking about Structural Inequalities in Everyday Life: New Politics of Race in Groups, Organizations, and Social Systems. (2016) p. 85 - 102 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/carolyn_west/30/